Recent from talks
Music of North Carolina
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Music of North Carolina
The U.S. state of North Carolina is known particularly for its history of old-time music. A number of recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Influential North Carolina country musicians such as the North Carolina Ramblers and Al Hopkins helped solidify the sound of country music in the late 1920s, while influential bluegrass musicians such as Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson came from North Carolina. Arthur Smith had the first nationally syndicated television program which featured country music. He composed "Guitar Boogie", the all-time best selling guitar instrumental, and "Dueling Banjos", the all-time best selling banjo composition. Country artist Eric Church from the Hickory area, has had multiple No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, including Chief in 2011. Both North and South Carolina are a hotbed for traditional country blues, especially the style known as the Piedmont blues. Elizabeth Cotten, from Chapel Hill, was active in the American folk music revival.
Because of their proximity to universities, areas such as Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (collectively known as the Triangle), Asheville, Greensboro, Greenville, Charlotte, and Wilmington have long been a well-known center for indie rock, metal, punk, jazz, country and hip-hop. Bands and groups from this popular music scene include folk rock The Avett Brothers from the Charlotte area (had a No. 3 album on the Billboard 200 in 2016 with True Sadness), Troop 41, Corrosion of Conformity, Superchunk, The Rosebuds, The Love Language, Benji Hughes, Jon Lindsay, Tift Merritt, Ben Folds Five, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Lords of the Underground, Between the Buried and Me, Mandolin Orange, and He Is Legend. Concord has hosted the annual three-day Carolina Rebellion hard rock music festival each May at Charlotte Motor Speedway since 2011.
Additional notable North Carolina musicians include country singers Andy Griffith from Mt. Airy, Charlie Daniels (d. 2020) (the bluegrass influenced "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" 1979) from Wilmington, Ronnie Milsap ("Smoky Mountain Rain" 1980), Randy Travis from the Charlotte area ("Forever and Ever, Amen" 1987), Kellie Pickler from the Charlotte area, Scotty McCreery from the Raleigh area (Had a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Clear as Day in 2011), Parmalee ("Carolina" 2013), and Luke Combs (had a No. 1 album on Billboard 200 with What You See Is What You Get in 2019) and Chase Rice (had a No. 3 album on Billboard 200 with Ignite the Night in 2014), both from Asheville. Soul singer Ben E. King (d. 2015) ("Stand by Me" 1961). Emmy and Pulitzer prize winner Rhiannon Giddens is from Greensboro, North Carolina. Glam metal band FireHouse ("All She Wrote" 1991) from Charlotte, Pop rock band Athenaeum from Greensboro, Fred Durst from Gastonia-lead singer of Limp Bizkit, and alternative metal band Decyfer Down. Beach music group The Catalinas ("Summertime's Calling Me" 1975) is from Charlotte, and pop singer Clay Aiken (the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 "This Is the Night" 2003) is from Raleigh.
Notable rappers, producers, and people in hip-hop from North Carolina include: J. Cole, DaBaby (had a Billboard No. 1 Hot 100 hit with "Rockstar" in 2020, Petey Pablo, 9th Wonder, Rapsody, Fred Durst, Mez, Lute, Ski Beatz, Deniro Farrar, and Cordae.
Slave musicians in North Carolina and throughout the country were often responsible for providing the dance music for both white and African American social gatherings. If a slave was trained as a musician, their value as property went up for their masters. String bands were formed to accompany the social dancing. After slaves were given their freedom, small communities of blacks began to form in the North Carolina Piedmont region. One of these communities outside of Statesville, North Carolina had enough of a fiddler population to support a fiddler's convention. Joe Thompson, an African American fiddler who died in 2012, is from the Cedar Grove community in North Carolina. The banjo was another popular instrument for African Americans to play in a string band. The banjo is an instrument adapted from its African relative the akonting, and younger black musicians often learned to play from older community members. One black musician, Joe Fulp, from the Walnut Cove community used the banjo to help pass the time while waiting for tobacco to cure. String Bands of the North Carolina Piedmont region had their own sound consisting of long bow fiddle playing, flowing banjo lines, and a prominent bass line provided by the guitar, an instrument added to the ensemble in the early 20th century. The style of Piedmont string bands was influenced by the dance tune melodies of Europe and the rhythmic complexity of African banjo playing.
North Carolina is also considered[by whom?] a cradle of gospel music. The Moravians who established the town of Winston-Salem had published Europe's first hymnal in the 15th century, and had brought from the Czech Republic and Saxony instruments including skills to build pipe organs. Music was an integral part of community life. Everyone participated in brass bands and knew the songs which told of births, deaths and other events. The Moravian Music Foundation in Old Salem contains the archive of these materials.
In the days of slavery, spirituals played a huge role in the lives of the slaves of North Carolina elite, and after emancipation, this stayed true. During the 1940s and 50s, North Carolina was a favorite place to visit of gospel singers for multiple reasons, among which was North Carolina's less rigorous Jim Crow laws. North Carolina is also home to a number of gospel singers, the most famous being Shirley Caesar, known as the "First Lady of Gospel". Caesar got her start when the group The Caravans came through Wilson in 1958. North Carolina is also famous for its abundance of family gospel groups which thrive all throughout the state. Award-winning vocal group The Kingsmen originate in Asheville.
The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a unique finger-picking method on the guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb bass pattern supports a melody using treble strings. Blind Boy Fuller (1904–1941) was a popular Piedmont blues guitarist, who played for tips outside tobacco warehouses in Durham during the 1930s. Fuller recorded more than 120 sides during the second half of the 1930s. Floyd Council (1911–1976) sometimes busked with Fuller. South Carolina-born Piedmont blues musician Rev. Gary Davis (1896–1972) also played in Durham in the 1930s when the city had a thriving black business community and an emerging black middle class. Singer and guitarist Carolina Slim (1923–1953) also worked as a musician around Durham. Etta Baker (1913–2006) was first recorded in 1956. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter John Dee Holeman (1929–2021) was based in Durham from 1954 to his death.
Hub AI
Music of North Carolina AI simulator
(@Music of North Carolina_simulator)
Music of North Carolina
The U.S. state of North Carolina is known particularly for its history of old-time music. A number of recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Influential North Carolina country musicians such as the North Carolina Ramblers and Al Hopkins helped solidify the sound of country music in the late 1920s, while influential bluegrass musicians such as Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson came from North Carolina. Arthur Smith had the first nationally syndicated television program which featured country music. He composed "Guitar Boogie", the all-time best selling guitar instrumental, and "Dueling Banjos", the all-time best selling banjo composition. Country artist Eric Church from the Hickory area, has had multiple No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, including Chief in 2011. Both North and South Carolina are a hotbed for traditional country blues, especially the style known as the Piedmont blues. Elizabeth Cotten, from Chapel Hill, was active in the American folk music revival.
Because of their proximity to universities, areas such as Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (collectively known as the Triangle), Asheville, Greensboro, Greenville, Charlotte, and Wilmington have long been a well-known center for indie rock, metal, punk, jazz, country and hip-hop. Bands and groups from this popular music scene include folk rock The Avett Brothers from the Charlotte area (had a No. 3 album on the Billboard 200 in 2016 with True Sadness), Troop 41, Corrosion of Conformity, Superchunk, The Rosebuds, The Love Language, Benji Hughes, Jon Lindsay, Tift Merritt, Ben Folds Five, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Lords of the Underground, Between the Buried and Me, Mandolin Orange, and He Is Legend. Concord has hosted the annual three-day Carolina Rebellion hard rock music festival each May at Charlotte Motor Speedway since 2011.
Additional notable North Carolina musicians include country singers Andy Griffith from Mt. Airy, Charlie Daniels (d. 2020) (the bluegrass influenced "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" 1979) from Wilmington, Ronnie Milsap ("Smoky Mountain Rain" 1980), Randy Travis from the Charlotte area ("Forever and Ever, Amen" 1987), Kellie Pickler from the Charlotte area, Scotty McCreery from the Raleigh area (Had a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Clear as Day in 2011), Parmalee ("Carolina" 2013), and Luke Combs (had a No. 1 album on Billboard 200 with What You See Is What You Get in 2019) and Chase Rice (had a No. 3 album on Billboard 200 with Ignite the Night in 2014), both from Asheville. Soul singer Ben E. King (d. 2015) ("Stand by Me" 1961). Emmy and Pulitzer prize winner Rhiannon Giddens is from Greensboro, North Carolina. Glam metal band FireHouse ("All She Wrote" 1991) from Charlotte, Pop rock band Athenaeum from Greensboro, Fred Durst from Gastonia-lead singer of Limp Bizkit, and alternative metal band Decyfer Down. Beach music group The Catalinas ("Summertime's Calling Me" 1975) is from Charlotte, and pop singer Clay Aiken (the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 "This Is the Night" 2003) is from Raleigh.
Notable rappers, producers, and people in hip-hop from North Carolina include: J. Cole, DaBaby (had a Billboard No. 1 Hot 100 hit with "Rockstar" in 2020, Petey Pablo, 9th Wonder, Rapsody, Fred Durst, Mez, Lute, Ski Beatz, Deniro Farrar, and Cordae.
Slave musicians in North Carolina and throughout the country were often responsible for providing the dance music for both white and African American social gatherings. If a slave was trained as a musician, their value as property went up for their masters. String bands were formed to accompany the social dancing. After slaves were given their freedom, small communities of blacks began to form in the North Carolina Piedmont region. One of these communities outside of Statesville, North Carolina had enough of a fiddler population to support a fiddler's convention. Joe Thompson, an African American fiddler who died in 2012, is from the Cedar Grove community in North Carolina. The banjo was another popular instrument for African Americans to play in a string band. The banjo is an instrument adapted from its African relative the akonting, and younger black musicians often learned to play from older community members. One black musician, Joe Fulp, from the Walnut Cove community used the banjo to help pass the time while waiting for tobacco to cure. String Bands of the North Carolina Piedmont region had their own sound consisting of long bow fiddle playing, flowing banjo lines, and a prominent bass line provided by the guitar, an instrument added to the ensemble in the early 20th century. The style of Piedmont string bands was influenced by the dance tune melodies of Europe and the rhythmic complexity of African banjo playing.
North Carolina is also considered[by whom?] a cradle of gospel music. The Moravians who established the town of Winston-Salem had published Europe's first hymnal in the 15th century, and had brought from the Czech Republic and Saxony instruments including skills to build pipe organs. Music was an integral part of community life. Everyone participated in brass bands and knew the songs which told of births, deaths and other events. The Moravian Music Foundation in Old Salem contains the archive of these materials.
In the days of slavery, spirituals played a huge role in the lives of the slaves of North Carolina elite, and after emancipation, this stayed true. During the 1940s and 50s, North Carolina was a favorite place to visit of gospel singers for multiple reasons, among which was North Carolina's less rigorous Jim Crow laws. North Carolina is also home to a number of gospel singers, the most famous being Shirley Caesar, known as the "First Lady of Gospel". Caesar got her start when the group The Caravans came through Wilson in 1958. North Carolina is also famous for its abundance of family gospel groups which thrive all throughout the state. Award-winning vocal group The Kingsmen originate in Asheville.
The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a unique finger-picking method on the guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb bass pattern supports a melody using treble strings. Blind Boy Fuller (1904–1941) was a popular Piedmont blues guitarist, who played for tips outside tobacco warehouses in Durham during the 1930s. Fuller recorded more than 120 sides during the second half of the 1930s. Floyd Council (1911–1976) sometimes busked with Fuller. South Carolina-born Piedmont blues musician Rev. Gary Davis (1896–1972) also played in Durham in the 1930s when the city had a thriving black business community and an emerging black middle class. Singer and guitarist Carolina Slim (1923–1953) also worked as a musician around Durham. Etta Baker (1913–2006) was first recorded in 1956. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter John Dee Holeman (1929–2021) was based in Durham from 1954 to his death.